Murphy Win Keeps New York Seat in Pro-Choice Column

Washington, DC – Nancy Keenan, president of NARAL Pro-Choice America, thanked voters of New York's 20th Congressional District for electing Scott Murphy in a special election to succeed pro-choice Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand.

In a hard-fought race that lasted several weeks beyond the March 31 election, Murphy defeated Jim Tedisco, an anti-choice candidate backed by the National Right to Life Committee, an organization that opposes legal abortion, even in cases of rape and incest.

"Murphy's win represents a victory for mainstream values and reaffirms that voters want leaders who will stand up for our freedom and privacy," Keenan said. "We look forward to working with Scott Murphy to defend women's reproductive freedom while uniting behind commonsense, common-ground proposals, like better access to birth control, that would prevent unintended pregnancies and thus reduce the need for abortion."

NARAL Pro-Choice America mobilized its volunteers and activists in the final weeks of the campaign to keep NY-20 in the pro-choice column:

Sent more than 1,000 email alerts to activists in this district urging them to vote for Murphy.

Organized volunteer-led phone banks that reached more than 2,300 pro-choice voters in the district with a GOTV message to vote for Murphy.

NARAL Pro-Choice America PAC's winning record in this district continues. The PAC endorsed Sen. Gillibrand in both of her successful races for this congressional seat. Overall, NARAL Pro-Choice America's political program has helped produce enormous gains for pro-choice forces in Congress, including the combined net gain of 44 pro-choice seats in the House and eight new pro-choice senators in the 2006 and 2008 election cycles. In its 2008 post-election analysis, National Journal ranked NARAL Pro-Choice America second among the nation's top 21 political organizations for its impressive win rate among endorsed congressional candidates in hotly contested races.